Troublesome Pumpkin

I have a beautiful baby daughter, called Sophia. She was born on Leap Day of this year, that is, February 29, 2008. Such an auspicious day to come into the world. The delicate, intricate strains of music by harp-guitarist Andy McKee heralded her coming, at four-thirty on that Friday morning.

Sophia will be eight months old this week. Her first months have flown by on graceful, silent wings, and before I know it, she is doing things I feel I am not ready for her to be doing! Where did that tiny, helpless, floppy little grub hie off to? Now she is crawling at Mach three speed, showing intense inquisitiveness that only a baby, just now discovering The World, can show.

She has, in the last few months, picked up some strange and amusing habits. Sophia has learned to imitate a ferocious, growling monster, grumbling and snarling to get a laugh out of her audience. As she suckles, she hums pleasantly in rising and falling waves of monotone bliss, often subconsciously imitating me as I hum softly back to her. When she concentrates, her little eyebrows knit together in an adorable emulation of a scientist hard on the heels of discovery. As if her hands have a collective mind all their own, she cannot but touch and handle and feel everything within her grasp, exploring anything that comes into her awareness. She is inexorably studying her world, and with it comes understanding. You can see it in her eyes, and once she has something figured out, the pleasure shining brightly on her face is enough to make me fall head-over-heels in love with her over and over again.

In celebration of you, Sophia, my sweet little grub, a video to embarrass you in the years to come.

Love,
Mama

(click on the title of this post to view the video)